The work of Jane Austen has endured like that of few other authors, her books mined time and time again on film, TV and stage. The latest film, Austenland, is not an adaptation but a look at a subset of people utterly obsessed with her work. The result isn’t without its sense of charm but becomes the hackneyed, corny exercise that the ads scream.
Based on the novel by Shannon Hale (who also co-writes the script here) the film centres on Jane Hayes (Keri Russell), a woman in her mid-30s who has had a lifelong obsession with Jane Austen and particularly her most known novel Pride and Prejudice. One day she hears word of a Jane Austen theme park in England and so she sets off in hope of experiencing the world she’s only read about in books and hopefully meet her very own Mr. Darcy along the way.
The premise of Austenland is a cute and intriguing one and it carries the film for at least the first little while. It initially suggests a kind of knowingness that will allow it to stand above and separate from other conventional rom-coms. Sadly that isn’t the case as once its initial charm wears thin it soon becomes clear the film is far more interested in staying in the comfortable box of clichés and predictability.
Russell does what she can with the limited central role but just like the phony dress-up surroundings in which she finds herself, her character is quirky and irksome in equal measure, completely one-dimensional in her perpetual sweetness. We follow her and a few other similarly enthusiastic ladies as they attempt to live the life they’ve only read about as they are doted on by actors including the Darcy-esque Mr. Nobly (J.J. Feild), the over-the-top Colonel Andrews (James Callis) and the constantly shirtless Captain East (Ricky Whittle). Even out of costume the characters are as cardboard as the cutout of Colin Firth that Jane has in her living room.
The drama mainly consists of a weak dilemma surrounding who Jane will choose between Mr. Nobly and farmhand Martin (played by one half of Flight of the Conchords, Bret McKenzie) that isn’t exactly riveting and goes absolutely nowhere surprising. Its slight plot is peppered with moments of even slighter humour that goes no further than the awkwardness of someone breaking the thinly veiled illusion of the experience by not acting correctly at the dinner table, playing an inappropriate song on the piano or using modern day technology, to the extreme disapproval of park owner Mrs. Wattlesbrook (Jane Seymour). Jennifer Coolidge is responsible for almost all the film’s limited amount of laughs as the brash, stereotypically unsophisticated American who seems more interested in meeting any man and is utterly clueless about who Jane Austen even was. But even then film relies far too heavily on her that it stops being funny and just becomes tiresome.
Director Jerusha Hess (wife of Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess) asserts a playful tone from the outset that’s easy to be lulled by but ultimately finds the film at an awkward no-win situation. It wants to be too many things at once; a parody with which everyone can laugh, a straight-up rom-com centered on the wish fulfilment fantasy of the perfect romance with the perfect partner and a celebration of the enduring appeal of Austen’s books. It achieves the surface-level appeal of the latter – although I imagine Austen purists might be peeved at its often parodic nature – but is neither witty nor funny enough to work beyond that. It’s ultimately harmless and good-hearted but proves that isn’t enough on its own.
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Austenland is released in UK cinemas on September 27th.
